Salmona measured the effect of appropriating land for monocultures and pasture, which resulted in article published in the international scientific journal Sustainability. The research was supported by the Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN).
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In total, 81 river basins were analyzed in the Cerrado, in the period between 1985 and 2022. According to the survey, a decrease in flow was found in 88% of them due to the advancement of agriculture.
The research indicates that the cultivation of soybeans, corn and cotton, as well as livestock farming, have influenced the hydrological cycle. The study also shows that changes in land use cause water reduction in 56% of cases. The remainder (44%) is associated with climate change.
"When I talk about land use change, we are, after all, talking about deforestation and what you put on it, after you deforest“, said Saloma, in an interview with Agency Brazil. According to the researcher, western Bahia is one of the places where the situation has worsened the most.
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As for the climatic consequences, the researcher explains that the so-called potential evapotranspiration is accentuated. Salmona further explained that this is the most extensive study ever carried out on the rivers of the Cerrado.
“What is increasing is solar radiation. It's getting hotter. You have more incidence, it's getting hotter and you have greater evaporation of steam, of water, and that's where climate change is acting, very clearly, in a widespread way, in the Cerrado. In some regions, stronger, such as Maranhão, Piauí and western Bahia, but it is general”, he detailed.
Rain
Another factor that has changed is the rainfall pattern. As Salmona emphasized, what is observed is not necessarily a lower rainfall level.
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“We saw that places where it rains less is not the rule, it is the exception. What is happening a lot is the reduction in rainy periods. The same volume of water that previously fell in four or five months is falling in two or three. As a result, you have less capacity to filter this water into deep soil and make it available in a dry period”, he commented.
One of the reasons that explains the chain reaction effect when deforesting Cerrado lies in the fact that the biome's vegetation has roots that look like bath plugs, that is, they are capable of storing water. This is what allows, during the dry months, the water retained in the soil to leak into the rivers. According to the researcher, around 80% to 90% of the water in the biome's rivers originates from groundwater.
(With Agency Brazil)
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